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EU-US economic relations: Draft negotiating mandates of the EU Commission for an agreement on elimination of tariffs and on conformity assessment

The TTIP mandate, which was agreed in 2013, must in any case be cancelled by the EU Member States in order to draw a line under the failed negotiations. The BAK considers the reduction of the originally comprehensive TTIP agenda to an agreement on the elimination of tariffs as a step in the right direction. However, we do not agree with the agreement on conformity assessment due to the missing sustainability impact analyses and no conclusive limits to the scope of the agreement. As long as the scope of the agreements pursued by the EU and the USA remains so different and the necessary basic parameters (tariff increases by the US on steel and aluminium, increase in automobile tariffs) are not given, providing the EU Commission with a mandate does not make sense. Should negotiations nevertheless be started on an agreement on conformity assessment and regulatory cooperation, sensitive interests (protection of workers, environment, climate, health, consumer and data privacy, as well as the chemical, pharmaceutical or foodstuff industries, the use of genetically modified organisms or antibiotics and veterinary matters) must be protected and explicitly excluded from the scope of
application.